A sub-genre of nearly every video game genre out there, The Mecha Game focuses on the use of Mecha to blow the crap out of each other.
Mecha games usually come in two flavors, High-Speed and Stompy, mirroring the Super Robot versus Real Robot divide. In stompy games, usually referred to as Mech Simulators, which were more prevalent in earlier times, the Mecha move rather slow normally, and an emphasis is on long-range combat with missiles, lasers, machineguns, and the like. Mech Sims usually also have a first-person perspective from the mech's cockpit. High-speed games are, as their name suggests, much zippier, often with a focus on close-range combat, although guns may be just as prevalent. These are usually shown from a third-person perspective.
As noted in the opening, Mecha Games are not a genre in and of themselves, but a sub-class that encompasses action games, simulations, Turn-Based and Real-Time Strategy, and more. What sets these games apart as a sub-genre is the fact that most Mecha games have a heavy customization element. Weapons, pilots, and sometimes entire mechs and parts thereof can be purchased and switched around between missions/stages, giving players unique engines of destruction and mayhem. This focus on Elite Tweaking makes it entirely possible for a Mecha Game to allow both stompy and high-speed styles of play. Other games may not have the customization element (for instance, MechAssault), but are included due to the sheer force of Humongous Mecha as a trope/meme. Because the term "Mech" has been trademarked, expect to see A Mech by Any Other Name.
Examples:
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
- Another Century's Episode
- Armored Core
- Armed Seven
- Armored Hunter Gunhound
- Armored Warriors
- Assault Suits Valken
- Astebreed
- Baldr Sky (a visual novel series with 2D combat from an over-head perspective)
- Bangai-O
- Battle Engine Aquila
- BattleTech and its various spinoffs and simulator consoles.
- MechAssault (third person, hybrid stompy/speed)
- MechCommander (RTS)
- MechWarrior (simulator)
- Bulk Slash
- Bionic Dues, a mecha game done in a top-down Roguelike style.
- Border Break
- Car Battler Joe
- Chrome Hounds
- Custom Robo is an interesting example: it takes the Humongous Mecha trope and chokeslams it onto its head. The titular robos are knee-high.
- Cyberbots
- Daemon X Machina
- Danball Senki
- Demonbane
- Dynasty Warriors: Gundam
- Front Mission 1
- Future Cop: L.A.P.D.
- Garrison: Archangel (3D-fighting game with customization elements)
- Gear Head
- Genocide
- Geppy X
- Gigantic Army
- Gihren's Greed
- Gotcha Force
- Gundam Breaker Series
- Gundam Vs Series
- Gungriffon
- Hawken
- Hardcore Mecha
- Heavy Gear
- Into the Breach
- Iron Brigade
- Ironcast
- Iron Soldier
- Lancer
- Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy
- Macross Frontier Trilogy
- Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force, a 2D beat 'em up that plays akin to a fighting game and shifts into the latter during boss battles.
- MechQuest
- MechRunner
- Medabots
- Metal Fatigue
- Metal Walker
- Metal Warriors
- Metal Wolf Chaos
- Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2
- Mobile Suit Gundam Climax UC
- Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise From The Ashes
- MS Saga: A New Dawn
- One Must Fall 2097
- Override: Mech City Brawl
- Phantom Crash
- Project Nimbus
- Ranger X
- Robot Alchemic Drive (a spiritual successor the Japan-only Remote Control Dandy series)
- Robopon
- Robotech: Battlecry
- SD Gundam G Generation
- Senko no Ronde is another interesting example; it blends the shoot 'em up genre with a fighting game.
- Shattered Steel
- Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
- Slave Zero
- Starward Rogue
- Starwing Paradox
- Steel Battalion
- EarthSiege
- S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International
- Steel Strider
- Strike Suit Zero
- Sunrider
- Super Robot Wars
- Shin Super Robot Wars
- Supa Robo Gakuen
- Super Robot Spirits
- Super Robot Wars 1
- Super Robot Wars 2
- Super Robot Wars 3
- Super Robot Wars 4
- Super Robot Wars 64
- Super Robot Wars Advance
- Super Robot Wars Alpha
- Super Robot Wars BX
- Super Robot Wars Compact
- Super Robot Wars Compact 2
- Super Robot Wars Compact 3
- Super Robot Wars DD
- Super Robot Wars Destiny
- Super Robot Wars EX
- Super Robot Wars Gaiden
- Super Robot Wars GC
- Super Robot Wars Judgment
- Super Robot Wars K
- Super Robot Wars L
- Super Robot Wars MX
- Super Robot Wars NEO
- Super Robot Wars OE
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation
- Super Robot Wars Reversal
- Super Robot Wars T
- Super Robot Wars UX
- Super Robot Wars V
- Super Robot Wars W
- Super Robot Wars X
- Super Robot Wars X-Ω
- Super Robot Wars Z
- Target Earth
- Tech Romancer
- Thexder
- Titanfall
- Transformers: War for Cybertron
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
- Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
- Transformers: Cybertron Adventures
- Vanguard Bandits
- Virtual-ON
- Walker
- The War of Eustrath
- Windom XP
- Wing of Darkness
- Wolf Fang
- Xeno series:
- Zone of the Enders